Leo Doesn't Give Up
by BadgerInMySoup
Summary: And eventually wins the girl of his dreams. Thalia/Leo.


AN- Yup. I love Thalia/Leo. I really hope I do their characters justice in this….

* * *

The first time Thalia sees Leo, he's fifteen and obnoxious and he's constantly hitting on her and she really doesn't care.

In fact, the only reason she doesn't shove him off a cliff is because he's her little brother's best friend and he's managed to keep him save for the duration of their quest.

Honestly, it's a relief when she has to leave because she's tired of Leo's eyes on her.

* * *

The second time Thalia sees Leo, it's been a few months and she's secretly hoping he's found some other girl to moon over.

Jason is still at Camp Half-Blood and has become their unofficial leader in Percy's absence and Thalia is more than a little proud. Piper is still shooting him those looks and Thalia can see Jason throwing some right back (as long as Piper isn't looking).

And as she leaves the Artemis cabin on their second night there (looking for Annabeth) she runs (literally) into Leo. He grabs her arms to stop her from falling and Thalia can't tell if the spark she felt was from him or because she's the kid of the god of lightning.

She settles on it being herself.

"Hello," Leo grins, "To what do I owe the honor of running into you?"

"Hi, Valdez," Thalia grumbles.

"I knew you missed me more than you let on. Did you get my Iris-messages?"

"Unfortunately," Thalia says, wincing as she thinks of the reactions on her Hunters' faces every time Leo's head would magically appear. "You know, you need to stop with the whole flirting thing before my Goddess thinks I reciprocate any feelings."

"And you don't?" Leo asks suavely.

Thalia kicks him.

* * *

The third time Thalia sees Leo, it's a middle of a battle and the Hunters are doing extremely well. Then Jason, Piper and Leo stumble in from the woods and immediately engage in a fight with a wolf.

Jason and Piper handle themselves extremely well but Leo spends too much time making sure Thalia is noticing him to pay attention and is soon knocked on his rear end. Thalia mutters under her breath as she races over and manages to knock the wolf away before it can sink its teeth into Leo's chest.

"You okay?" she asks as she offers him a hand.

And as Leo stands up, she notices he's gotten taller. A little bit leaner. He grew into his ears and his hair wasn't as curly. That's when she remembers it's been a couple years.

"Thanks for saving me," Leo says with a smile that holds no hint of flirting or swooning.

"What are you guys doing here?" she asks, her eyes scanning the battlefield and seeing that most of the wolves were gone or wounded.

"Quest. Something about a chalice, I don't know. I just tagged along for the ride," Leo explains all the while taking items out of his tool belt. Thalia notices that he's building a compass.

"You couldn't just request one of those?"

"You don't usually find compasses in the work area. Besides, I like building things."

Thalia opens her mouth to make a witty retort but Leo suddenly yells for her to look out and he's dive-bombing her into the ground. A wolf soars through the air, exactly where they'd been standing and Thalia quickly draws an arrow, piercing the wolf's skin the second it turns to face them.

"Nice one," Leo mutters and Thalia notices that he's got an arm around her waist. She shoves him away and stands up, brushing her clothes.

"You're welcome."

Thalia scowls but turns to face him anyway. "Thanks."

"Thalia!" Jason runs over. "Are you okay?"

Piper is right at his heels, glancing at Thalia worriedly. The Lieutenant waves a hand. "Totally fine."

"Thanks to me," Leo boasts proudly.

Thalia trips him as he walks away.

Later that night, as the Hunters recover in front of a fire (joined by Piper and Jason and Leo) Thalia sinks down next to her little brother for some good solid catching up time.

"Why isn't Leo flirting with me?" she asks then immediately wonders why that's the first thing out of her mouth.

"I told him to lay off," Jason says quietly, "I know it's getting annoying and I didn't want you kicked out of the Hunters because of him."

"Oh," Thalia whispers, kicking at an imaginary rock. She catches Leo's eye across the fire and he grins at her.

And she tries to tell herself she doesn't like it.

* * *

The fourth time Thalia seess Leo, it's at camp again. The Hunters were in the mood for some good old fashioned Capture the Flag and Thalia was always willing to go to the camp where her friends were located at.

She spies Jason and Piper immediately, and catches then making out in the battle area. Being the big sister, she teases them for a little bit, then wanders off to find Annabeth or Percy or Nico or Leo.

And she stops because when has she cared about finding Leo?

But her feet lead her to cabin 9 and she knocks on the door, then peeks inside. A lone figure is standing near the back and she can recognize the mop of curly hair anywhere.

"Hey, Valdez," she greets.

Leo's head whips around and he smiles when he sees her (and no her heart doesn't race a little bit more) and he turns around and she stops short.

Because he's shirtless and he doesn't look half bad.

But she shakes her head because she stopped noticing boys ages ago.

"What are you building?"

"Just doing some tinkering. What brings you to our neck of the woods?" Leo leans against the table and crosses his arms as he talks and Thalia notices the muscles in his upper arms.

"Capture the Flag."

Leo nods in understanding. "I think Jason's in the battle area, if you were looking."

"Oh, I found him. And Piper."

Leo snickers. "Yeah, it's fun catching them making out. They get so embarrassed. I can't tell you how many times me, Travis and Connor-"

"Of course you'd hang with the Stoll boys," Thalia interjects with a teasing grin. "You should have been a Son of Hermes."

Leo smirks. "You wanna see what I've been planning in the other bunker? It's pretty intense."

Thalia knows she shouldn't spend any more time with him than she already has.

"Sure."

Thankfully he puts on a shirt before they leave and she follows him into the woods and past a few rocks and a ton of trees until they reach the once-hidden bunker.

They walk inside and Leo begins explaining about mechanics and tools and Thalia just likes looking at the pictures and isn't really paying attention until she hears a familiar name.

"What did you say?"

"I said we found this plan in the Hermes cabin. Well, Travis found it. It was Luke's, we think."

Thalia glances at the picture. It's a rough sketch of some sort of chariot. There were places to hold weapons and other dastardly tools that one would need to win.

"You were friends with him, weren't you?" Leo asks softly.

Thalia nods. "We traveled the country together. He was a great sword fighter. Extremely brave."

"You loved him."

"I think I did."

"Was that why you joined the Hunters?"

Thalia sighs. "Part of it. I wasn't supposed to be the Prophecy kid, I couldn't handle that power. As long as I stayed fifteen, Percy would be the one."

"But that was just it. You turned your back on boys and love and-"

"So what," Thalia snaps. "Love just hurts in the end. Luke betrayed me; my mother gave away the one person I gave a damn about. I'm happy where I am."

"I wouldn't hurt you," Leo says quietly.

"I thought you were over this!" Thalia groans and she makes to leave the bunker.

"No, I pretended I was for Jason but, gods, Thalia you're amazing and perfect and I think we could be great together and-"

"And then another girl you have no possible chance with comes along and I'm yesterday's news! I'm alone with no Hunters, no immortality and no boyfriend. So stop flirting with me and stop trying anything. Because I'm not gonna go for it."

She storms out of the bunker, Leo's eyes on her the entire time.

* * *

The fifth time Thalia sees Leo, they're in Greece and there's fighting and bloodshed and she's about to slay a monster when someone knocks into her, sending her sprawled out onto the ground.

She prepares to scream at whoever pushed it until she realizes it was Leo. And the reason why he pushed her was because an arrow was aiming right for her and he saved her life.

And he took the arrow instead.

She follows the medic to their First Aid tent and stays in the background as they lower Leo onto a mattress and Will Sollace does some healing things and Leo's opening his eyes.

"Wha happened?"

"You got hit in the back by an arrow. You're lucky it didn't go in too far."

But Leo notices Thalia in the back and he can't keep his eyes off her and he's kind of ignoring Will. The Apollo kid notices and goes to leave the cabin.

"Keep an eye on him," he tells Thalia as he passes.

She walks to the bed and sits down on a conveniently placed chair. "Thanks. That's twice now, you know."

"Let's try not to make it three."

She smiles. "You're an idiot."

"I'm in love, there's a difference."

Thalia goes cold. Her mouth is dry and her hands clammy. "What did you say?"

"I-," And Leo's eyes widen as he realizes exactly what he said but he plows on anyway, "I love you. Is that a crime? The only way you're kicked out is if you love me back."

"And I don't," Thalia says automatically, hating the look of hurt in his eyes.

"Then we got nothing to worry about. You should go, they're gonna need your badass fighting skills out there."

* * *

The sixth time Thalia sees Leo, they're on their way back from Greece, members of both camps plus her Hunters aboard his creation, the Argos II. She's leaning over the edge of the boat, looking in the distance, her mind going fifty miles an hour.

Leo comes up behind her and leans on the spot next to her. "I'm pretty proud of this boat. It's a smooth sail and no one's getting sick so that's a bonus."

"Did you mean what you said? In the tent?"

"Yeah. I love you, Thalia. You're an amazing fighter, an absolute gorgeous girl, snarky to boot," Leo turns to face her, his expression completely earnest, "And I'm three years older than the first time you met me. I'm done chasing after girls I can't have. I want you. Just you."

Thalia exhales. "You make it hard for a girl to say no."

"Then don't," he pleads softly. "Don't say no."

"I," Thalia looks into his eyes and sees every promise he's making. "I can't Leo, I-"

He swoops in and kisses her. His arms wrap around her waist and she starts kissing him back as her hands land in his shoulders. And there's sparks and fireworks and fire? And she pulls away to see Leo's started smoking.

"Oh my gosh, Leo, calm down you're gonna destroy the boat!"

Leo just stares at her. "You kissed me back."

"If you destroy this, we're all screwed, Jason can't fly everyone home."

"You kissed me back."

"Can someone bring me a pail of water, please!"

"You kissed me back!"

Thalia takes the pail Piper handed her and douses Leo with water. "Time to cool off, hot-head."

Leo just grins and grabs her waist and pulls her closer and Piper pretends not to look.

"You kissed me back."

"How many times are you gonna say it?"

"You realize what you're giving up, right? Immortality? A family?"

"Leo Valdez, if you try now to tell me you're not worth it, I'll kill you."

Leo smirks then leans in to kiss her again.

* * *

So Thalia is kicked out of the Hunter's and forced to move into Cabin 1. She spends all her time joking with Annabeth and Piper, teasing Percy about some stupid idea he has and spending some quality sibling time with Jason.

And Leo's always there. She's not one for PDA and he respects that but he always holds her hand anyway because he wants everyone to know that she's not available. And she'll kiss him goodnight while Jason groans playfully in the background and for the first time in a long time, Thalia feels happy.

Not happy like she was with the Hunters but happy because she's got friends and a brother and someone who really loves her.

And it's pretty nice.

* * *

AN- Yes, fluffy ending. It's how I roll. I hope you all enjoyed!


End file.
